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Mortie (Pahrump, Nv) on 10/18/2009

For your minimum daily requirement of potassium take one level teaspoon of CREAM of TARTER - ABOUT 5 GRAMS as compared to 99 milligrams in a tablet. You will have to mix it in your favorite soda to cut the very tart taste. You would have to take 50.5 tablets to obtain the same amount of potassium.
EC: Has anyone used cream of tartar medicinally? It's an old time remedy and we're discovering interesting information while researching it right now. Only side effect noted is gastrointestinal distress (diarrhea) if too much consumed in one day.

http://chestofbooks.com/health/materia-medica-drugs/Treatise-Therapeutics-Pharmacology-Materia-Medica-Vol2/IV-Bitartrate-Of-Potassa-Cream-of-Tartar-Crystals-of-Tart.html

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Replied By Catherine (Wellington, New Zealand) on 04/13/2010

Reply to EC: 30 years ago I had a friend (now deceased) who was crippled as a young woman 20 years before with polio. She told me she took a teaspoon of cream of tartar in water every morning on rising and that this kept her "water" flowing in good order. I regret now I didn't clarify exactly what she meant, maybe having partial paralysis (she could manage on crutches) meant her bladder needed better control or to prevent any edema. She did mention that it was a remedy well known among her contemporaries. Hope this helps a bit.

EC: Thank you so much!

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Replied By Catherine (Wellington, New Zealand) on 09/28/2012

Hi, further to my previous post I happened to google cream of tartar and found many references to its use as a remedy for UTI's. This was probably what my friend meant when she indicated it for "water problems"
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Replied By Anonymous (-) on 06/19/2013

To what I could gather one gram of CoT would have aproximately 200mg of potassium. (I used wikipedia for molar masses of CoT and tartaric acid). I weighed one tsp to be around 4 g (solid is about 5 g according to wiki).

So one tsp of CoT would contain around 800mg of potassium, if I'm not completely mistaken. One source (http://blog.fooducate.com/2011/01/11/8-things-to-know-about-cream-of-tartar/ ) said it would contain 495 mg of potassium. I packed mine quite densely though and my equipment isn't necessarily very accurate.

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Replied By Ann (La, Ca) on 12/01/2013

Please correct your dangerously inaccurate information on this page regarding the potassium amount in cream of tartar. Other websites are quoting this information from your page, believing they are quoting a reliable source.

The reference on the page is this:

10/18/2009: Mortie from Pahrump, Nv: "For your minimum daily requirement of potassium take one level teaspoon of CREAM of TARTER - ABOUT 5 GRAMS as compared to 99 milligrams in a tablet."

That is incorrect. 1 teaspoon of cream of tartar contains just 11% of your daily needs, which is 495mg of potassium, not 5 grams -- that's a 10X difference. You can cite the following reliable sources:

http://ndb.nal.usda.gov/ndb/foods/show/5746
http://www.nutritionvalue.org/Leavening_agents, _cream_of_tartar_nutritional_value.html

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Replied By Diana (West Palm Beach, Fl) on 12/09/2014

I took 1 tsp of Cream Of Tartar around 2 pm today and have been drinking plenty of water. I am still nursing my 2 year old son and I held off to do so until 8 pm. (about 6 hours later ) Ian concerned and now worried about nursing him. Does anyone have any input on this ? Will he be ok ? I tea about cardiac arrhythmia and am checking his bpm often. I would love some input. Thanks!
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Replied By Mama To Many (Tennessee) on 12/09/2014

Dear Diana,

I have not been able to find any information to say that cream of tartar would be contraindicated in breastfeeding. I checked my "Breastfeeding Answer Book" and could find no information about it. It was not listed in the table of foods and substances contraindicated during breastfeeding.

Personally, I would not be concerned. I was a nursing mom for most of 20 years and I don't think I would have thought twice about it.

But perhaps you have some information I am unaware of regarding it?

Your toddler is so blessed to still be nursing!

~Mama to Many~

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Replied By Louise (Utah) on 12/03/2015

To Ann of La, Ca--Yes, a teaspoon of cream of tartar equals or contains 5 grams of cream of tartar, not potassium. A teaspoon of flour is also 5 grams of flour. No dangerous information was given. You misunderstood. It wasn't 5 grams of potassium. A teaspoon or 5 grams of cream of tartar contains 495 mg of potassium.
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Replied By Dana (Ca) on 03/28/2017

Potassium doses should be split up into smaller doses throughout the day. I take 1/4 teaspoon of Cream of Tartar in 4 ounces of orange juice and a pinch of sea salt twice a day, at 10:00am and 2:00pm. It's called the adrenal cocktail. I feel more grounded with this added to my diet.
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Replied By Paul (Tx) on 08/01/2017

Dana do you drink this everyday? My wife takes medication for High Blood Pressure and periodically she will suffer from her potassium level dropping too low. Most of the time she will eat a banana and then she will be fine in about 30 minutes. She had a spell last night about 1:00 am and we didn't have any bananas for her to eat. It was to late to go to the store and buy some bananas because we don't have 24 hr stores here. I saw on the internet about CoT but I was afraid to give it to her because of the warnings I read. She suffered about 1 1/2 hours because of it and finally went back to sleep.
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Replied By Ali (Wales) on 10/27/2021

As Dr. Berg points out on YouTube, a classic symptom of low potassium is hearing your blood/pulse whooshing or banging in your ears. I keep a pot of potassium citrate crystals by my bed & a quarter teaspoon in water gives me 300mg of elemental potassium, the amount in a small banana. As I don't want to be eating at night, I just pop some into half a glass of water along with half a teaspoon of magnesium citrate (magnesium helps the cells retain potassium, apparently), let it dissolve for a few minutes then drink it down. Stops the banging & calms me down within a few minutes. A level teaspoon of Cream of Tartar only seems to contain around 500mg of elemental potassium (the amount in a large banana), so shouldn't be an issue. A glass of coconut water contains a decent amount of potassium, so having some of that on hand is helpful too.